The technology described herein relates to magnetically responsive, particle-based electro-optic displays that can be addressed with a specialized instrument (stylus, marker, or print head) and related apparatus and methods.
A variety of systems are available for addressing an electro-optic display with a stylus. For example, a stylus can be used to take notes on certain tablets. However, in these systems, the electro-optic display must be able to detect the position of the stylus in order to produce the desired result, e.g., drawing a line. As a user passes the stylus over a surface of the electro-optic display, the electro-optic display activates pixels corresponding to those over which the stylus passed, based on the position of the stylus detected by the electro-optic display. Some magnetically responsive displays may be addressed with a stylus that contains a magnet and/or produces a magnetic field, however, these displays also require location techniques to determine the location of the stylus.